Brian Fanzo, joins the Social Pros Podcast this week to discuss the delicate balance between a company and personal brand, the work it takes to become a thought leader, and the rise of some exciting social media trends.

A Passion for Change

Brian Fanzo partnered with Daniel Newman halfway through 2014 to continue to build what Daniel had started as BroadSuite Consulting. Brian’s focus is on the media group side, working with a lot of enterprise and mid-market technology brands. Brian’s background is in technology, so a large part of what he does is help brands embrace social media technology.

Brian doesn’t find it difficult to balance his company work with his personal brand. To him, “If you’re working for a brand that you love, and that also loves you, the idea of growing your personal brand and also linking that to the business needs can be very successful.” (highlight to tweet)

It can be challenging, but Brian finds a balance that works.

Brian not only produces his own content, but curates other people’s content that he agrees with or finds value in. By curating content he stands behind, he has the opportunity to align himself with others’ philosophies while telling his own story around that content.

From a strategic relationship-building standpoint, he specifically reaches out to help those he has aligned (say, with a book launch), because the more he helps them out, the more his audience will embrace their philosophy and in turn understand what he’s about.

“There is no shortcut to building those relationships, and there’s definitely not a shortcut in becoming a thought leader.”

Brian has a background is in computer science and cyber security. He has worked for UPS and even played amateur poker full-time at one point. Through his varied experiences, he learned that his true passion is change.

“I love teaching people how to embrace change.I love learning how others change and adapt.” (highlight to tweet)

Social media and technology are Brian’s two favorite things. The changes in those fields are happening at a pace we’ve never seen before. He loves having his finger on the pulse of those changes, and gets fired up about trends as he sees them emerge.

One trend Brian is excited to see is brands truly connecting with their communities. Content marketing is forcing brands to really check in with their customers, and social media is making it possible. Because how can you create content that really helps your community solve problems without first asking them, “How are you doing? What do you need?”

Brands are also starting to recognize the power of the influencer. They are starting to realize that influencers are more valuable to their community because of their relationships. “It’s not someone that’s influential because they’re on TV. It’s because that influence is directly tied to that community. They have relationships.”

With these trends providing true value on social media, “we’re going back to that element of being social on social, rather than using social media as strictly a communication channel.” (highlight to tweet)

THE BIG TWO:

Brian Fanzo

What’s your one tip for becoming a social pro?

Be yourself. Your job is already work. It’s a lot more work to try to put on a facade and transition that from online to offline. “When you embrace who you are and embrace yourself, not only does it make it a lot easier, but those real relationships that you built online easily transfer offline, because it’s who you are, not who you’re trying to be.”

If you could do a Skype call with any person, who would it be?

Tim Cook. Brian talks about Apple a lot in terms of their use of social media. Apple doesn’t really embrace social as a customer service tool. You can walk into an Apple store and get something fixed at the Genius Bar, no problem. But if you tweet about it, there’s no one who is going to answer you. Brian would like to pick Tim’s brain to see why Apple is doing so much listening on social, but not interacting.